Friday Flash "A Book Found"

            “I forgot a book,” Kelvin Adams said.

            He and his mother were standing in line to check out at the library. He’d just hand his books to her and was looking over the list they’d made when they first arrived.

            “Do you know where it is?” his mother asked.

            “Yes. Can I go get it?”

            “You’ve got time, but don’t run,” she told him.

            Kelvin walked as fast as he could back to the children’s section. He passed the bean bag chairs and wood cut out jungle animals and head for the back corner, where the mythology books geared towards children were. He pulled the paper back out of his pocket and began walking down the shelves looking for the numbers on his paper, running his fingers along the spine of the books as he went. He went back and forth and finally dropped down to his knees and start on a bottom shelf. The Really Big Guide to Greek Mythology was on the bottom shelf at the center of the books. He pulled the book out from the shelf and looked at the cover. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something on the shelf sparkle. He leaned back down at the books on the shelf.

            Through the gap left by the book he’d pulled out he could see another book laid on its spine behind the other books. Kelvin pulled some of the other books out from the shelf and pulled the sparkling brown book out from the shelf.

            “Can I help you find something?” A woman’s voice called out.

            Kelvin turned around and looked down the end of the aisle. One of the librarians was standing at the end of the aisle, she was looking at the pile of books he had on the floor, her arms fold across her chest.

            “I found it,” Kelvin said. He waived the book he’d just pulled out at her. “It fell behind the others.” He quickly began putting the other books back on the counter.

            Once he was done, he grabbed both books and rushed back to the check out line. He stood behind his mother and looked over the big plain brown book he’d found. It no longer sparkled. There was no writing anywhere, not even a tag with a catalog number on it. The cover was originally dark brown, but there were water stained areas. The edges were bent and frayed and some areas of the cover had scratches. He opened the front cover. There was no barcode or even an old check out card inside. He went to flip the next page and see if there was a title there.

            “Don’t open it here,” a man’s voice said.

            Kelvin snapped the cover shut and looked around. No one was behind them in line and no one was looking his way. His mother was laying books on the counter and chatting with the librarian. She reached out for the books he was holding. Kelvin looked around once more and then hand them to his mother. The librarian scanned the books they’d picked out. When she came to the brown book, she opened the cover, then closed it and set it into the pile of books she had scanned.

            “Is there anything else I can help you with today?” she asked his mother.

            “No thank you, that will be it,” his mother replied. “Can you help me carry these Kelvin?”

            He took the brown book and looked around again. No one seemed interested in him. Kelvin then took more of the books and followed his mother out of the library. While sitting in the back of the car he opened the cover of the book again, peeled up the corner of the first page and stopped. His mother had plugged her mp3 player into the radio, selected a playlist and then began singing along to somebody named REO Speedwagon. Kelvin lifted the page and found a blank second page. He sighed and reached to close the book. He stopped when he noticed the page began to fill with fancy printed letters.

            Property of Kelvin Adams

            Kelvin gasped. He slammed the cover shut and looked up at his mother. She was still singing her heart out. He let the book sit in his lap and realized it felt warm. Kelvin touched the top of the book and felt a heartbeat. He smacked the book off his lap and onto the floor.

            “Ouch!” someone said. It was the same voice he’d heard in the library.

            “Did you say something honey?” his mother asked.

            “Uh…no” He was looking at the book.

            Once they were home he left the books they’d gotten for his report in the living room and rushed up the stairs with the brown book. He slammed his bedroom door and hide in his closet, clutching the book close to his chest. It still felt warm and he could feel a heartbeat beating against his own. Finally he decided to try and open the book again.

            He did a quick flip though all of the pages, starting at the back. The book was blank, except for the page that now said it was his property. He flipped to the next page and wait. In neat block lettering the words “see page 103” suddenly appeared.

            “But there aren’t any page numbers,” Kelvin said. Down in the bottom center of the page, the number one appeared. “Whoa!”

            Kelvin turned the pages slowly. They were still blank but now had page numbers. At page 103 he stopped and wait for more words to appear. Instead of words smoke poured out of the page and moved to the center of his bedroom. He crawled out of the closet and watched it become a thin man wearing a stripped suit.

            The man looked around the room, which was full of Star Wars merchandise. He turned and smiled at Kelvin.

            “What is thy bidding my master?” He bowed before Kelvin.